After lunch, Lingyun returned from Prince Gong's residence. After Xiangyue left the main hall, Baozhan couldn't wait to pull her over to the tea room nearby and asked, "How's it going? Have you told the master?"
Xiang Yue nodded and said, "I said it."
"Did the master say to kick out Taohong, the talkative girl?"
"No." Xiang Yue turned around and poured herself a cup of tea, sighing, "The master just asked me to pretend that I knew nothing."
"Why?" Baozan asked in confusion, "This girl clearly has bad intentions, or maybe she's a spy planted in our palace by someone else. Since the master knows everything, why does she want to keep her here? If this continues, there's no guarantee that Sister Peirong won't make a mistake."
Baozhan's unintentional words reminded Xiangyue. She sighed and said, "Could it be that the master has known about this for a long time and is just putting on an act with the two sisters in order to thoroughly uncover the person behind this?"
"Impossible?" Baozhan retorted, sighing, "If you can see it, how can the person behind this not see it? Isn't that extremely stupid?"
Xiang Yue raised her eyebrows: "Maybe, she really is stupid?"
That night, Concubine Shu couldn't hold back any longer and had Concubine Ping summoned. She said unhappily, "How come you're completely useless? It's been so long, and the Emperor still hasn't touched you?"
Concubine Ping lowered her head and said shyly, "Your Majesty has his own ideas, and I can do nothing about it."
"What do you mean by helpless? It all comes down to your incompetence." Concubine Shu rolled her eyes at her. "What man doesn't like new things? Besides, he doted on Concubine Rou so much back then, and you look so much like her, how could he not be tempted?"
Concubine Ping said nothing, but just lowered her head and stirred the silk handkerchief in her hand.
Upon seeing this, Concubine Shu ordered Mo Xiang to bring the things over and whispered, "Next time the Emperor summons you, you will secretly mix this thing into the Emperor's food."
Ping Jieyu was slightly stunned when she took the thing and asked in surprise, "Your Majesty, what is this?"
"Men and women make love and use this to fascinate. This is something I spent a lot of effort to find. Please don't let me down."
Concubine Ping's face was filled with fear. She immediately knelt before Concubine Shu and said awkwardly, "Your Majesty, the palace is not allowed to use aphrodisiacs to seduce the emperor. If, if someone finds out, I and the entire Qian family will be dead. I just want to stay by the emperor's side."
Concubine Shu, however, lifted Concubine Ping's chin with her hand, narrowed her eyes, and said coldly, "That's not what you said when you first came to see me. Why, now that I've paved the way for you, you're unwilling to do so?"
"No, no...that's not what I meant."
Under the candlelight, Concubine Shu's pretty face gradually twisted, her eyes darker than the night. "My dear sister, if you can help me succeed, I will certainly not treat you unfairly. But if you betray me now, I can't guarantee anything else will happen. It will be easy for me to put an end to you."
Concubine Ping froze in place, a chill slowly rising from her heels to the back of her head.
Seeing this, the young palace maid at the side quickly knelt beside her master and said in panic, "Your Majesty has misunderstood. Our young master was just thinking about how to give the medicine to the emperor without anyone noticing. She didn't have any other intentions."
The room was quiet for a moment. Concubine Shu was satisfied, then loosened her fingers and looked at the master and servant kneeling at her feet with a smile: "With your words, I feel relieved. Mo Xiang, it's getting late, please send Concubine Ping out."
"Yes." Mo Xiang walked to the side of Concubine Ping, his eyes looking down at her with disdain: "My lady, please."
When she returned to her room, Concubine Ping was sitting on the couch with a deathly pale face. Her maid Yuyan took the teapot and took a few gulps of cold tea, which finally suppressed the fear in her heart.
Just as I came to my senses, I heard my master's voice, neither light nor heavy, in my ears: "Yuyan, do you think I was wrong?"
"What is the young master talking about?"
In the dim candlelight, Concubine Ping's eyes were filled with tears. The packet of medicine powder in her hand had long been deformed by her. "Shouldn't I have gone to find Concubine Shu? If I hadn't found her, perhaps nothing would have happened today."
Yuyan's face was icy cold, and she said calmly, "My dear, have you forgotten what kind of life we lived before?"
Then, pointing to the dazzling gold ornaments in the room, he said word by word, "Look at those things, how dazzling they are! Are you willing to go back to the way things were?"
Ping Jieyu held her forehead and said sadly, "But I just want to be with the emperor. I don't want to hurt him. You don't know, the emperor is actually very pitiful..."
Yuyan seemed to have heard a huge joke and sneered, "My lady, you are a clay Buddha who can hardly save yourself when crossing the river, yet you still pity the most powerful person in the world? The emperor has women on his left and women on his right. How can he be pitied?"
"You don't understand..." Concubine Ping sniffed and sighed, "The Emperor seems to have the whole world under his control, but he can't even get the person he loves. Isn't that pitiful?"
Yuyan rolled her eyes at the ceiling and said unhappily, "My dear aunt, forget about others and think about yourself first. We can't afford to offend the Emperor, but do you think we can afford to offend Concubine Shu? If you don't follow her instructions, not only will you pity the Emperor, you won't be able to save yourself either. Now that you've chosen this path, there's no turning back. But if you truly regret it, you know the path of Fengyi Palace better than I do."
The night gradually deepened.
Concubine Ping sat on the couch for a long time before finally making a decision. She handed the item in her hand to Yuyan and said, "Put it away for now. The next time the emperor summons you, you can take it with you."
Yuyan smiled and said, "You're right to think so. There are hundreds of ways to live. Why would you choose the most pathetic one?"
The next morning, because Lingyun had been on night watch the previous night, Peirong had just gotten up when she returned to the side room. She said with some displeasure, "Don't dawdle. Hurry up. The Queen is already up. Today, the Queen will personally escort the Prince to the study to study. Don't miss the time."
Peirong, however, dressed leisurely and snorted coldly, "Sister is really different now. Now she's ordering me around. Don't forget, I'm just like you, a part of the Empress's dowry. No one is more noble than the other."
Lingyun frowned: "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean." Peirong's face showed a hint of cruelty: "Don't think I don't know what you did to me. I'm telling you, don't dream, I won't let you succeed."
Lingyun was about to retort when Xiangyue and Baozan quickly pulled her back and said, "Alright, alright, stop talking. If you delay Her Majesty's time, we'll all be in trouble."
Outside the house, Taohong looked at this scene and couldn't help feeling proud.
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